How Chris Cooley's Privates Hit the Internet

So anyhow, maybe you saw how a photo of Chris Cooley's most personal parts became available for mass Internet consumption yesterday. If you're like Chris Cooley's brother Tanner--the editor of Cooley's blog, on which this photo first appeared--here's what you might have wondered:

"Dude, why did you take a naked picture of yourself and put it on the blog?"

It's one of the great questions of American sports journalism this week. That's what Tanner asked Chris when they finally got home after last night's game and took a look at the blog and all that it contained.

"It was an accident, it was an accident, I didn't mean to," was Chris's response.

A few words about what ensued will follow later; for now, here's the story of how the photo came to be, as related by Tanner.

Tanner and his wife were driving to the game from their home in Ashburn yesterday morning. Chris was in his hotel room, working on an entry about a quiz players were required to complete before the game. The quiz, in Cooley's case, concerned the Saints defense. Cooley's desk and bed were covered with stuff, so when he wanted to get a picture of this quiz as he was getting ready for the game, he put it on his lap and grabbed the camera, according to Tanner. Then he called Tanner--who was still only in Reston--to tell him the post was finished.

"Ok, well, you'll just have to look at it later," Chris said, which is not the usual editing process.

Soon he called back again, telling Tanner that he had a video of Fred Smoot and Santana Moss that he needed Tanner to publish. So Tanner went to the hotel room, and Chris rushed off to the stadium. After he published the video, Tanner glanced at the item about the quiz, read the text and left for the game.

"But I didn't really look at the pictures closely," he told me. "Obviously."

(As for the wisdom of posting the quiz, the Cooleys said the page in question could not have revealed anything secretive about either the Saints defense or the Redskins offense.)

Once at FedEx Field, he hopped on a computer inside the Comcast SportsyNet trailer, and he saw some comments on the blog, asking things like, " 'Why is your [stuff] on the internet?' And I'm like, '[Stuff?] I don't see Chris's [stuff] anywhere,' " Tanner told me. But he said the monitor wasn't too good, and all the flesh looked like leg, and again, everyone was in a hurry.

So the team won, Cooley's 27-yard fourth-quarter catch was perhaps the biggest play, everyone celebrated, and eventually the Cooleys went home to Chris's house and logged onto the blog again.

"Oh my God," Tanner said.

"You can't see anything," Chris argued, bizarrely.

"You can see EVERYTHING," Tanner pointed out.

So the Cooleys began to panic. They took down the item, which had by now migrated to other sites. Chris's wife was obviously concerned. "I can't believe I did that, I'm so stupid," Chris said to his brother, more or less. "Why were you even naked anyway?" Tanner asked, sensibly, leading to the explanation about the mess on the bed and the table.

They made some phone calls, including to me, sitting in the FedEx press box, at which point "looking at the private parts of Chris Cooley" was pretty far down my list of evening plans. I gave Tanner the numbers of some fine folks from Deadspin, and by late last night the fine folks at Deadspin had covered up the offending image.

The Cooleys plan to post a full explanation and apology on their blog at some point soon. I asked whether they might also adopt a rule: no more taking blog photographs while naked.

"The rule is, no more posting without a full editing look by me," Tanner said. "We already thought we had this rule after Chris posted his check with his routing number and everything on it, but then this happened."

Oh man, I'm sorry, but this is pretty funny. Chris might be embarassed, and I feel bad for him in that respect. But judging by his reaction of, "You can't see anything," I'd say he's liable to just laugh it off. I gotta say, only Cooley could do something like this. In his defense though, Einstein was a bit scatter-brained also.

What's the big deal? On his blog last spring, Chris posted a couple of photos of Christy half naked...and she wasn't exactly dressed demurely when she posed for Maxim magazine. Frankly, I'm rather amused at the Cooleys' embarrassment over this.

Why can't you people leave Chris Cooley alone. He made a mistake..move along. And for those looking at his "parts" as little.The guy has a big one. He was sitting down so it was not in full view. Why does everyone making it a big deal. He is a cool guy. I bet a lot of women are already salivating and thinking lustfully about him. He probably has added more fans to his side. Way to go Chris. Be proud of what you have.

That's pretty bad. Look I've played football all through high school and college and you see guys naked all the time. You see their stuff you don't stare though. I know all my white teammates have all been shortchanged but such is life. SOrry bout that...pretty funny his little white ween.

Let that have been a "brother" and see what would have happened.The press would have eaten it up! It would have been blasted all on the newspapers;everywhere. That person would have been probably fined and suspended! There are children that get on the internet everyday pulling up athletes. You don't think they don't know about what occurred and curious about all the "hype"? My question is: "Why would Chris Fooley... my bad...feel the need to take a picture of a playbook anyway and have it posted?(Was there some secrets he wanted revealed?) Oh I forgot...his other private book. Come on you people! It really doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this one out. This is definitely "EXPOSURE" for Mr. Fooley.